STEPWISE

STEPWISE educates students in STEM-SE, Skills & Products so that they may critique STEM-SE relationships and self-direct networked RiNA projects to overcome harms of their concern. It is meant to oppose manipulative neoliberal practices like stratifying inquiry-based learning, sanitized STEM education & public propaganda through direct ‘application-based teaching’ regarding political economy; e.g., prosumption, regulatory capture & astroturfing.

STEPWISE Pedagogy

Students’ Research-informed & Negotiated Action (‘RiNA’) Projects

Resources for STEPWISE Pedagogy

Downloadable PDF Document
Downloadable PDF Documents
Published Edited Book

JASTE School-based Issues

Downloadable PDF Articles

Skills Apprenticeship Resource (PDF file)

Graphic Novel About Civic Actions to Overcome Industrial Pollution

Uses of Claims from Science & Technology Studies

STEPWISE Rationale & History

STEPWISE Theory & Resources Links

Collaborative Outreach

Teachers Talking About Their Implementation of STEPWISE

STEPWISE in Elementary Schools

Since its inception in 2006, STEPWISE has been mainly explored and developed in secondary school science contexts, including with students in after-school clubs. We have worked with a few teachers in elementary schools, however – as described in the video at right/below. Based on such work, we believe that students in elementary schools are quite capable of developing critical views about science & technology and societies more generally and developing and taking personal & social actions to overcome harms of their concern. However, there are few STEPWISE-informed teaching & learning materials available for teachers’ uses. If you are interested in collaborating with us in action research to develop and field-test STEPWISE approaches in elementary schools, you might review the videos below and then write to larry.bencze@utoronto.ca.

Introduction for Elementary School Teachers

STUDENTS REFLECT

TEACHER TEACHES

STUDENTS PRACTISE

Students Talking About Their RiNA Projects